View from Baku: It was the Russians who organized the last military provocation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border

by
David Stepanyan

Monday, August 11, 14:17

It was the Russians who organized the last military provocation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Their goal was to force Azerbaijan to join the Customs Union, Azerbaijani political scientist Zardusht Alizadeh said in an interview to ArmInfo.

"The Armenian-Azerbaijani presidential meeting in Sochi was a chance for President Putin to pressure President Aliyev into joining his integration projects. But our army is strong enough to resist any provocation. That's why Aliyev refused to do it," Alizadeh said. He is sure that had Aliyev agreed to join the Customs Union, right after the meeting the presidents would have appear with an announcement that in some of the Azerbaijani districts around Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian troops would be replaced by Russian peacekeepers. "Aliyev refused to do it, so, Putin's plan failed. The only achievement for him was Aliyev's consent to supply food to Russia," Alizadeh said.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Sochi Sargsyan and Aliyev agreed to continue their peaceful talks.